ful efforts to wrest it from their control.
Finally Spain united Naples and Sicily un-
der its own government in 1501 and sent
viceroys to rule the city. By the Treaty of
Cateau-Cambrésis of 1559 France officially
ceded Naples to Spain. Under Spanish rule
Naples grew to become the second-most
populous city in Europe, after Paris, and
attracted renowned painters, writers, schol-
ars, and sculptors from throughout Italy.
In the sixteenth century Naples was
visited by Raphael, who painted theMa-
donna del Pescefor a family chapel in San
Domenico Maggiore, and Giorgio Vasari,
who painted frescoes and paintings for the
monastery of Monteoliveto. In the early
seventeenth century, the wealthy religious
orders were hiring Neapolitan and foreign
artists to decorate the chapels, refectories,
and halls of their monasteries in and
around the city. Noble patrons also com-
missioned important works from Mich-
elangelo da Caravaggio, who spent several
years in Naples and left behindThe Seven
Acts of Mercyand theFlagellation of Christ.
The sculptor Pietro Bernini was also work-
ing in Naples at this time as was the phi-
losopher Giordano Bruno.
Under the Spanish viceroys Naples ex-
perienced the peak of its prestige and
wealth, but it also suffered under oppres-
sive tyranny. In 1647 a violent revolt led
by a humble fisherman, Masaniello, broke
out in the city. The revolt was put down
but after an outbreak of plague killed half
the population in 1656, Naples began to
decline as an economic and artistic capi-
tal.
Neoplatonism ...................................
A philosophy that originated in the third
centuryA.D., modeled on the ideas of the
Greek thinker and teacher Plato, and
which was revived by scholars, essayists,
and poets during the Renaissance. The
Neoplatonist school began in the books of
Plotinus and his student Porphyry, the au-
thor of theEnneads, an important early
book of the Neoplatonist school. These
scholars of Alexandria sought to explore
and clarify Plato’s original philosophy, and
extend it into new doctrines using Pla-
tonism as a foundation. The central belief
of Plotinus and his followers was that the
universe emanated from a divine, all-
pervading “Source” in the form of lesser
beings, and that human spirituality and
philosophy strived for a return to that
Source. Later students of the Platonic tra-
dition, including Iamblichus and Proclus,
added to these writings an element of mys-
ticism and magic, and the idea that se-
midivine beings such as angels and de-
mons served as intermediaries between
ordinary humans and the Source. Neopla-
tonism can be seen as a synthesis of an-
cient Greek mythology with the monothe-
ism that was gaining followers throughout
the Mediterranean, notably in the beliefs
of the early Christians.
Important Neoplatonic philosophers
lived in Alexandria, Asia Minor, and
Greece; their ideas were a strong influence
on Christian writers and church fathers,
including Saint Augustine of Hippo, and
the medieval philosophers Boethius and
John Scotus, as well as medieval Islamic
and Jewish philosophers. The Neoplatonist
doctrines of the soul, the afterlife, and the
divine source were incorporated into many
aspects of Christian doctrine.
In the Renaissance, many scholars of
ancient Greek philosophy studied Neopla-
tonism, reviving its beliefs as a counter to
the strict and orthodox Christianity that
had held sway throughout the Middle
Ages. This Neoplatonic revival took placeNeoplatonism